PLEASE help me sort my stamina!!!

[Shortofchange]

I have horrendous stamina but nothing is helping it!

I used to dread sports at school- I was skinny, long legged and everyone expected me to be good at it but I hated the feeling of my heart going so fast and feeling like I was going to faint after 1 race:

Today I was walking my dog through the woods and had to walk up a hill, it was probably around 40 metres and around 45 degree slope? Just a normal hill in the woods. It’s only 16 degrees so warm but not particularly hot, it’s also raining. The ground was the normal gravelly mud you get on woodland trails.

I could barely do it. I had to stop at the top because I was so exhausted and I felt weak and faint with it. My heart was pounding and I felt like I had just run a marathon. Obviously I don’t know what my pulse was but I could tell it was fast.

I’ve always been like this and I don’t know why! I’m healthy, active (dancing), young, and my BMI is around 21 so normal. My diet is normal and I’m not iron deficient as I’ve had that tested in the past in s routine appointment as well as oxygen levels, so I think my problems are just fitness related rather than health. I’m really struggling and my lack of stamina has been noticed by my dance coach before and it’s not improving regardless of cardio, training or any types of exercising. The weak feeling eventually passes and my heart slows back down itself if I take a break or sit down, but I come across as being lazy as I have to do this quite a lot.

its also embarrassing when when we are out and I’ve got to try and pretend I’m not dying inside (eg going up stairs in shops).

In case it’s relevant I’m quite an anxious person and even when I’m not worried about something my body still seems to be anxious. I was admitted in hospital for a while after an accident and I wasn’t worried or anxious at all but my pulse was always above 100 and at times went up to 150+, which they said was anxiety from being in hospital which seems likely although I wasn’t aware of being anxious it was probably subconscious. Not sure that’s relevant at all because obviously I wasn’t anxious today when walking up the hill, but just mentioning it just in case!

what the hell is wrong with my fitness? Has anyone else had similar stamina struggles before?

thank you! Do you have a specific fitness monitor you use or would recommend? I got a smart watch (not for checking my heart, I got it for keeping track of my workouts and exercises because I was trying to improve my fitness) and as a bonus it shows heart rate. I don’t always wear the watch though but whenever I do it goes from being normal/high to being very high when I do things like exercise or even situations like in my OP like walking my dog or going up the stairs. I was never sure if the watch was accurate though so I ignored it and focused on the fitness monitoring.

that’s a really good idea about booking some physio sessions! I’ll do that as well and at least they’ll be able to give me specific things to work on to get my fitness up x

That's heart rate is called Tachycardia and you need to be checked for atrial fibrillation. Please look it up.

I was going to suggest it sounded like a heart murmur and going for a check on your heart when I saw the thing about your childhood issue, these can open up again or cause knock-on problems down the line. Definitely worth checking out with the GP!

Just found symptoms of a heart murmur and they sound like it's worth following up on for sure, especially since you can have sudden cardiac arrests or heart failure with them:

	Feeling weak or tired
	Shortness of breath, especially with exercise
	Chest pain
	Fast, pounding, or skipping heartbeat
	Swollen ankles, feet, abdomen
	Feeling dizzy or faint
	Poor feeding and failing to grow normally (babies only)

Shortofchange sorry, I’ve only just spotted your post to me. I don’t have a specific recommendation, sorry. I have a couple of friends of use Polar for Ironman training, but there may be a better one for just tracking your rate all day.

It’s good to know the watch you used registered your heart rate as normal/high when you were resting since that will be lower than 100bpm (which would be worrying as a resting heart rate). But might still be useful to know something more detailed.

Hope this thread has helped you come up with a plan. Please don’t let my ideas discourage you from following up on some of the more medically oriented suggestions.

novacaneforthepain · 27/08/2022 05:43
That's heart rate is called Tachycardia and you need to be checked for atrial fibrillation. Please look it up.

came here to say precisely this. Cardiac assessment needed.

I had similar symptoms referred to in our house as "skippy heart" which dragged on through lots of blood tests and 2 referrals to private heart consultants.

Needing to sit down after climbing the stairs rang a bell as does the odd heart feeling.

No one gave me more than 'ectopic heart beat' or anxiety as a diagnosis and I have all but eliminated it now through lots of lifestyle changes:

Regular cardio (I run 3 x a week)
2 cups of tea early in the morning then NO other caffeine
Small quantities of dark chocolate occasionally - no massive family bars of full sugar choc of an evening any more
Cut out most sugar
Sleeeep
Vitamin D

If any of these are off for more than a few days then they start to come back.

Sugar and caffeine seem to be the worst triggers but not enough sleep is another one.